Obituaries : John McLean Morris; Helped Discover ‘Morning After’ Pill

Dr. John McLean Morris, the Yale University professor who helped discover the “morning after” birth control pill, has died of prostate cancer. He was 78.

Morris, who died at his home Thursday, developed the pill in the 1960s along with Dr. Gertrude Van Wagenen.

The pill, whose estrogen-like compounds cause the body to eject a fertilized egg by preventing its implantation and growth in the womb, was the first birth control technique, other than surgical abortion, for use after conception.

Morris also designed new versions of the intrauterine contraceptive device, and in his late 30s identified a rare sexual disorder known as testicular feminization.

Also called Morris’ syndrome, the disorder causes babies born with normal male chromosomes to develop as females because of an insensitivity to testosterone.

Educated at Princeton and at Harvard Medical School, Morris was a professor and the chief of gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Medical Center for 35 years. He served twice as the school’s acting chairman of obstetrics and gynecology.

He was also a surgeon, an author and an activist on the subject of population control.

Morris said his career in medicine, women’s health and birth control stemmed from the infanticide of baby girls and other misery he saw as a child growing up in China, where his father was a Presbyterian missionary.